In the rapidly changing world of opera, you would not have put your money on Phyllida Lloyd’s production of Puccini’s potboiler lasting a generation, despite its success. Yet here it is again, as edgy as ever.

This was only Lloyd’s second excursion into opera when she took it on in 1993. Since then, she has been in the front line of directors from straight theatre who have gradually made actors out of opera singers – something we now take for granted.

Even though this revival is in the hands of Michael Barker-Caven, Lloyd’s imprint is still there. So realistic is the cavorting in Act 4, for example, with Schaunard in drag and the Bohemians seemingly without a care in the world, that Mimì’s arrival is a body-blow: the contrast is horrendous.

Despite raised expectations after her stunning contribution to From Paris with Love, Gabriela Iştoc’s Mimì does not disappoint. Gutsy, romantic, beautifully controlled, even at her pianissimo exit in Act 1, she is also svelte enough to look the part at her death. After a nervy start, Sébastien Guèze relaxes into his Rodolfo, complementing her passion.

Lorna James’s strong, if slow-starting, Musetta and Phillip Rhodes’s warm-toned Marcello head the rest of a first-class cast. Anthony Ward’s sets, more Greenwich Village than Left Bank, are holding up well, and Andreas Delfs conducts with a fluidity that really suits the voices. It is double-cast, so you can even choose your performance on Saturday. Still a marvellous tear-jerker.

Nightly till Saturday (plus Sat mat), then in Salford till May 17. www.operanorth.co.uk